The View From The Top Is Not Always Better...

I just found this in my drafts. It was from a few months back but I never published it. It's interesting to see the different perspective it has from the poem "There Is No Grave To Stand and Weep" I wrote a month earlier. 

Up until now I've been feeling like loss is so much harder for those left behind but tonight as I watched my whole family celebrate the holidays together I had a realization. We are still all here, we are alive and celebrating life together. How sad to think of those who are no longer with us (maybe) watching us and not being able to be a part of it all. How sad for them.

The grass is always greener...or bronzer...or whiter??

On a recent trip to Thailand I was amazed by the amount of "whitening" products available to people. Everything from sunscreen to facewash to makeup claimed to be whitening. I'm pretty sure the same goes for most of Asia. That's the most desirable look, a soft ivory complexion.  

Now isn't it interesting that here in North America everything is the opposite? It is all about being bronzed. Glow this and glow that, stand up tanners, lie down tanning beds, spray tan, airbrush tan, the list goes on.

So what does this all mean? Either we as humans are just truly confused or maybe there is something more to all of this. After all someone is manufacturing and marketing this dream and making a lot of money. Do they just sit around and come up with ideas to make entire cultures think that what they were born with isn't good enough and "we'll sell them the idea of being able to change it?" I guess it wouldn't be the first time.

I don't know but it sure is strange how the grass is always greener...or bronzer...or whiter. 

There are some cultures that seem to be happy just how they are, like France and Italy and most of Europe come to think about it.  I was going to say Brazil but they are the plastic surgery capitol of the world now I think. It's the same thing with boobs. All the flat girls want big boobs because they think that will make all their problems go away (it won't) and the girls with big boobs wish desperately for a nice small pair with no back pain.

What if we were all just happy with what we had?

Reality Does Bite

Reality Bites was a movie in the 90's that I remembered loving as a teenager but when I watched it in my 20's it took on a whole new meaning. This is one of my favorite quotes from the movie;

Lelaina (Winona Ryder): "I just don’t understand why things just can’t go back to normal at the end of the half hour like on the Brady Bunch or something."

Troy (Ethan Hawke): "Well, ‘cause Mr. Brady died of AIDS. Things don’t turn out like that."

Nothing is perfect and nobody is perfect which leads me to another one of my favorite lines;

Troy: "There's no point to any of this. It's all just a... a random lottery of meaningless tragedy and a series of near escapes."

There is no grave to stand and weep

I decided to write a reply to the poem as some sort of written therapy. 

There is no grave to stand and weep;

I visit you at night asleep.

I've listened to the winds that blow

and still I'm yet to hear you though. 

Sunlight helps to ease the pain

but come twilight it's back again.

When I awaken in the morning's hush

your loss assaults me in a rush.

I cannot make this wrong a right

I could not help you win the fight.

I lie awake at night and cry

You are not here.  You said goodbye.

     -Lisa Keeping

Do not stand at my grave and weep

Perhaps the most beautiful thing I have ever read.

Do not stand at my grave and weep;

I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;

I am not there. I did not die.

    -Mary Elizabeth Frye

I Know Who I Am

I posted an entry awhile back titled "Do You Know Who You Are?" which contained this quote,

"If you are what you eat 

and you don't know 

what you're eating,

do you know who you are?"

                          

                                     - Claude Fischler

I love this quote and it got me to thinking. 

I have read a lot of articles about how when you eat factory farmed meat you're eating all the pain, suffering and negative energy that was in that animal. You are eating death. It sounds crazy but think about how you feel when you're in a stressful situation. It's proven that our body functions change when we're under stress and it shows in our heartbeat and our skin and dark circles under our eyes and deeper inside in things we can't see. 

So now imagine you are an animal and you've been taken away from your family and your being forced into a small space with artificial light all day and all night and the animals around you are being hurt and squealing. Think what's happening in their bodies, never mind that they are also being fed hormones and a mix of basically sawdust and ground up animal parts. Now imagine eating that. 

Okay, so to tie this all together. The other day I was juicing fresh, organic apples and pears and pomagranite, lemon, ginger, carrots etc. I held up the glass and took a big drink as the sun was shining through our windows and I thought, "I am drinking life! I know what I'm drinking and I know who I am!" 

We live in a world where doing the right thing does not always mean doing the easy thing (I feel like I might've stolen that from Barrack?) Believe it or not but doctors, pharmaceutical companies, food corporations and politicians do not always have your best interest in mind.It is up to each individual to take care of themselves and their children. Be proud of who you are and the healthy choices that you make. No one can take that away from you. 

Please Watch This

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7awAo6CA5i4

http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/